Story Telling

As a student in the classroom of English 324, I found it very enjoyable and rewarding to explore being a teacher who explored story telling within a classroom. I appreciated the freedom we had to explore how we would want to communicate the importance of story telling to our students.

As a teacher within this unit, I realized why doing this unit that although I can easily think about why story telling is important and is applicable to every day lives, coming up with lessons that actually allow students to explore that can be difficult. Too often I think we as a society view story telling as something that is strictly playful and fictional. We ignore the fact that all of us are story tellers. In order to really show the true value of story telling, we have to move past fairy tales and fables and explore a little more into how story telling appears in situations applicable to real life. Now, don’t get me wrong, I myself find story telling of every nature to be valuable, but justifying it to meet standards can sometimes be difficult.

As a student participating in other story telling activities delivered by other groups as teachers, I was mostly surprised by how much variety the class as a whole presented. It felt a little strange because I found myself constantly evaluating whether or not their activities were aligned with their lesson and assessment. At times I almost felt like I could predict what the homework would be, knowing what the assignment in class had been. It is difficult to be a student when you have already experienced being the teacher of the same type of lesson.

I mentioned before a few things that I learned about myself along this progress. I would say that as a teacher, I am constantly worrying and rethinking my lessons in order to make them go as smoothly as possible and to assure they are aligned. I think it is also important to note that you should never completely throw out a lesson plan you have thought out ahead of time, however, you must realize it is okay to adapt along the way and most importantly, failure will happen. Failure should be seen as a learning opportunity to figure out what does and does not work. Teachers can then take that knowledge and apply it to making their lessons better. I also learned that coteaching can have its benefits and drawbacks. It is very easy to not let one teacher have a voice, and I think that happened a lot in our group.

As a student, I learned that I have become a more critical one when approached by any type of assignment or activity. I recognize the value in learning from a variety of different teachers with different styles. However, I also realize how I judge the value of lessons based on what I know about alignment, and it’s difficult to not want to just act and give the responses we desire as teachers. I feel like myself as a student is much different than a real high school student. Where I am more willing to respond and participate, a lesson could fail in that regard in a real high school context.

Whether or not story telling is a academically viable unit can be debatable. I feel that how you choose to make it relatable to your students is what is most important. Also, to think about. Also, presenting the idea of story telling and really showing the intellectual tasks it can get students to do such as to describe, explain, evaluate, examine, create, and summarize. It is very easy to forget to that story telling goes beyond fictional fairy tales and that it does get students to practice a variety of skills that can apply to daily life. It is the teacher’s job to ensure that story telling is portrayed and delivered to students in a way that gets them to do something beyond passive listening.

Journaling

In my life, I view almost everything in a way that creates freedom and form. However, what I think would be one thing that gives the most balance between the two would be journaling. When I journal I am still writing, therefore, I do not throw all convention out the window. For the most part my words form sentences, or at least follow an order that creates sentences. However, my thoughts seem unorganized because I freely write rather than try to make one entry have a theme or main topic. The most form that my journaling has would be a basic sentence structure or perhaps when I journal poetry I may create my writing to seem to be in more of a poetic form. But what is so freeing about journaling is that it is simply my own thoughts, however they may enter my head, thrown on a paper without censorship, or worry of judgment. You could also say that my journaling sometimes receives form by my own experiences. By that I mean that the writing comes alive simply because I experience things and write about them. You could say that it is limiting in that way, because it is limited to my own knowledge, experiences, and mind. But I love how much freedom I can have with writing when I do it, though I often do find myself trying to make it "sound good."

Ranking, Liking, and all that Jazz

Our discussion in class on grading opened my eyes to a few things. While reading the article I was interested in the whole idea of "liking" and how that may influence our grading and evaluating as teachers. When I think back to teachers I have had, on more than one occasion I can think of how discouraged I had been by seeing a letter grade on a piece of writing with no real explanation as to how the teacher had reached that judgment. I think more often than not we convince ourselves that we know what an "A" paper is versus a "B" and so on, that we forget that students are the people who really need to know what exactly those letters entail. The evaluation free zones could be helpful in a class I think especially when trying to help students at least grasp some confidence in their own writing. Although I would not say that we need to do away with ranking all together, I think when we do use ranking as teachers, it needs to be with great explanation and justification as well as trying to rank off of a variety of pieces of work rather than each individual assignment.

Assessment

I'd like to take a quick minute and discuss assessment. Honestly I hadn't really though too much about how often students really just want a grade and work for a grade and how often this can take away from their actual learning. I think Peter Elbow makes a lot of good points in his essay about Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking, however I think at times it's a little optimistic. Yes it would be great to say that we could as teachers avoid ranking and do more liking but often other rules and regulations and expectations of our schools and districts would prevent us from always doing so. I would say that within the capabilities within our classrooms it would be great to try to apply Elbow's methods but as he has said, it won't be easy.

Pedagogy

I am going to stray a little bit from discussing alignment because I think that it can be beneficial to discuss each element of the alignment separately also. Recently I've been thinking often about the pedagogy present in my classes. I think it can be interesting to first get into a class and think you know exactly how that professor teaches but then be surprised. For example, it is no secret that your friends may tell you what professors to take and why. Perhaps one never gives tests and only has group work, or maybe you hate group work so you love the professor who lectures and then just gives three tests. I know that for me when I think about what type of pedagogy I enjoy the most in a class I can't really choose one method. I much more prefer classes that give me the opportunity to work in groups, but also at times work on my own critical thinking. Though I do not enjoy as thoroughly the classes that consist mostly of lecture, at times I still feel engaged just listening and comprehending the material as it is taught to me. This probably has greatly to do with the fact that I have never really been able to say which type of learner I am above all other styles. I could say that I'm a visual learner but I know at times I am more auditory also. As teachers I think it's important to realize how much impact our own pedagogy can have on our students interests and engagement. Though it may be difficult to appeal to everyone, we must make effort to grown, learn, and adapt to our students' needs as well as our own.

Values and Alignment

So to be honest before taking this class I really never had thought about the alignment of a lesson or how that may impact my reaction to material in a class. Looking back now, I definitely can see that the alignment definitely was lacking in a few of the classes I enjoyed less than others. I had this one English class last semester where to be honest, I wasn't sure what the goals were other than to expose us to a variety of literature around the world. However, we only really focused on African American literature. This would have been fine if the professors had adjusted the curriculum accordingly. Instead they expected us to be just as knowledgeable about the material we hadn't even touched in class as we were about what we had been talking about the larger part of the semester. When I have classes where the professors are unorganized in their lessons, it really distracts from my learning and my interest in the subject. I just wonder why I should even care if obviously they don't either. This is an important thing I have realized because when I become a teacher consciously I will be trying to make my lessons meaningful and engaging by ensuring that not only do I have good alignment, but that my lessons do hold some value.

The Final Word

I would like to approach this final blog in an effort to discuss the class. I found the novels for the most part to be very interesting and they really helped me understand more about Indian reservations and culture.I really enjoyed that the storie were often told from different perspectives of each character. It made the stories more real for the reader. I also enjoyed how we talked about different aspects of reservation life in class alongside what we saw in the novels. The overall atmosphere of the class was very laid back and inviting which I enjoyed. I have to admit that I really do not like Almanac of the Dead and will probably not finish the novel. There was just too much going on in it that I wasn't quite sure how to comprehend it all. Overall I would have to say that the novel I enjoyed the most was Smoke Dancing because I feel like I learned a lot about oral tradition and reservation life through that book. I would say that having taken this class I feel a little more aware about the judgements and stereotypes that we place on the Indian people and how wrong they can be. I also feel more passionate about exploring my own native blood.

Two Old Women

This story from the beginning was actually more interesting to me than some of the other stories we have read for the class mainly because the story seemed really authentic and as if it was simply being told by a story teller. The story offers a lot to the reader by not only describing the culture of the Indians, but also by showing the reader some "How To's" within that culture such as how to survive, to have patience, and how to forgive. The story of the old woman may at first seem cruel and unusual reading it from an American perspective. However, as readers we must remember that the people in the tribe are merely making a decision for the benefit of the majority. Yes, they are unaware at first of how capable the two old women really are, but that only adds to the story by showing the reader what the tribe learned as well as the woman. The oral tradition is definitely present in this story as many lessons are introduced to the reader. On the surface the story could just be about two old women being left for dead, but when we search for the lessons we see that the women learn how to fend for themselves. There is this idea of everyone taking care of their own while also sharing when it may be necessary. The story was really interesting to me because of how real it seemed because the women changed so significantly throughout the book.

Christine is Ida's sister/cousin?

What? Christine is really the daughter of Ida's aunt and father? That makes her like Ida's sister and cousin all at the same time. Wow, I really have to wrap my head around that one. I have to say that reading Ida's part of the book really did reveal a lot to the reader and I honestly didn't feel like she loved Christine any less than she loved Lee although Lee was really hers. I'm not sure I really understood Ida especially when she didn't tell Willard that it was his child but I think if a man had said I wasn't really pretty or smart but I was accepting I probably wouldn't want him staying around for very much longer either. The book somehow wrapped itself up though the three stories didn't necessarily come together in the end. One thing I would have liked to have seen happen would be for Ida's part to have included more of the present issues such as Christine being sick and abandoning Rayona. I think I now understand why Ida was so okay with taking care of Rayona because she had always been taking care of people and giving them love, understanding, and a place in the world. Overall, I loved the stories within this book and the perspectives only added to my understanding of the central issues present.

How will it all end?

I am really enjoying the latest book we are reading in class, Yellow Raft in Blue Water. It is interesting to me that once again we are reading a book where the perspectives change from chapter to chapter. However, I feel like the amount of time passing is different in this book from Smoke Dancing because in Christine's part she is mostly talking about herself when she was younger. I still remain quite curious about how the title of the book really sums up the book, but I assume that it must be some kind of metaphor for perhaps all three of the characters Rayona, Christine, and Ida. I feel that each on of them is in a way in a middle of a lake surrouned by water because they are so out of reach by other characters in the book in a way. I'm confused as to how the book will come to the close when each section really does not seem to carry on with the same story. I wonder if I will simply be left with what I know about Rayona or if somehow in the end all three of their lives will come together and give some type of sense to the reader about the point of the entire story. Right now I really enjoy Rayona but I can't bring myself to have sympathy for Christine because it seems like since she was younger she has been one of the most selfish people in the book and she continues to be even when she becomes sick. As a reader I think it is easy to feel for Rayona and dislike Christine but I haven't made up my mind about Ida yet.

Rayona

I really am enjoying this book so far. I find Rayona to be very interesting and Christine to be rather annoying. I often find myself wanting to tell Rayona to speak more or try harder because she seems so calm and to herself. I don't understand how she can be so calm when her mom just left her there with her grandmother. That's the only issue I really have with Rayona as a character. I also am not quite sure I understand why she isn't more cautious about the priest after he tells her she is beautiful but perhaps she is in need of attention and some type of "love" after her mother has abandoned her. It's hard for me to read this story because Christine reminds me of my own mother in the sense that she only really cares about herself. I find her completely selfish telling Rayona she is going to kill herself and just putting more pressure and stress on a young girl than she needs to. I understand she is feeling really low because of her life but I think she could be a better mother.

The book ends and the dance begins.

So if I am correct than this post should be on the reading from last week in which we finished Smoke Dancing. I have to say that I was in a way disappointed with the ending of the novel because I guess I wanted more to happen at the end. I don't feel that the reader is really given any more insight into the character of Fiction but perhaps that's how the author wanted it to be. I do however think that Fiction has regained some kind of identity for herself. She is no longer really defining herself how others do. We see this in how one of the last chapters is told by Patricia Tunny rather than her name Fiction. I think she has looked back on that part of her life and can finally be truly happy because she has shown her father that there are people who care about her and who will take her side over his. Also, Bud was shown for the true jerk he really is which I think gave her character closure in the end. As for Mason, I am interested to see what is in store for him and how he deals with the guidelines that tribe counsel has set up for him.
As for Almanac, I think we learned a great deal about the twins and their lives and how they became the way they are and we also learned some about Sterling and what exactly he did to be exiled. I'm very interested to find out more about Seese and her baby and what exactly happened with all that mess. I am beginning to see all the other stories that are present in this book which I think goes back to the whole oral tradition thing. These stories, even in the book seem to be passed on to others and I wonder how much they would change through these re-tellings.

Fiction Exposes Conspiracy

Both books so far are very interesting, though I would have to agree with most that I prefer reading Smoke Dancing to Almanac. My previous post discussed the importance of Bert and I think that she has shown significance throughout the story because her land and what she left behind is being used as tools for each side to fight each other. I realy enjoy watching Fiction develop throughout the novel. When she created the dress and confronted her father in front of everyone it was almost out of character for her because before she had not wanted to tell anyone about anything regarding who had bust her windows or why she had gone to the hospital. I really wonder what exactly fiction wants from her father Bud. I guess I just don't understand exactly what she is searching for. Does she want him to acknowledge she is his or does she want more than that? There are times I feel both ways. Sometimes it seems that she just wants him to admit that he is not a perfect person or Chief. Other times it seems like she really wants him to suffer or pay in some way for how he has wronged her. I'm interested to see how she changes further into the end of the book.
Another thing that bothered me in the story was the fact that Bud signed papers so allow the police to come onto the reservation. I didn't understand why he would do that because I though that the people of the reservation would see this as something horrible and know that he had done it. I understood that he wanted to take down Mason but I felt that that would only make more people against him. I feel odd about Bud because he character seems different when the chapter is told from his point of view. I'm just waiting to see how he turns out.

As for the Almanac, the story of Yoeme is interesting because I think she has affected the lives of the twins quite a lot. What I'm really interested in is Seese's story because I want to know what happened exactly to her baby. The amount of drugs she continues to take just amazes me. I keep hoping she will stop and she is so lucky her baby wasn't born addicted. I wonder what will happen to Lecha in the end and if she will eventually answers Seese's questions.

Smoke Dancing and Oral Tradition

The first reading for Smoke Dancing really surprised me. The story is interesting and intriguing. Oral tradition can be seen throughout the story as pieces of the characters’ lives is shared with other characters from other characters. The reader is being told these stories from the perspective of three of the characters so far, Fiction, Bud, and Mason. They are making the entire book appear as oral fiction because the story is coming from them in each chapter. We also see this going on with Fiction telling the reader more and more about Bert and how she was before she died. Another thing worth mentioning is the relationships between the characters. I am unsure how realistic these relationships are to a real reservation. It seems that in the book, everyone is somehow connected to everyone else. The character of Fiction appears alone but really she is pretty much the most connected to every other character in the book. Her character is complex and confusing. I don’t understand why she wouldn’t make her father take responsibility for beating her. I wish she would confront him in some way before the end of the book. Also, I don’t understand the significance of the character of Bert. She seems to have been housing them all but there just seems to be something still missing from the story about her thus far. She seems too important to just dissolve from the story after her death. I think her relationship to the other characters must be highly significant in some way but the author hasn’t quite revealed that to the reader yet.